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Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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"Getting qualified help is not so much a problem for our higher-end concepts, but it definitely is a challenge for the Houlihan's restaurants," Dover says. He adds that part of the reason for Kansas City's growth -- corporations that are moving into the area or expanding current operations -- also can be a problem. "Why would you want to be a server or a line cook when you can go work for Sprint?"

KANSAS CITY, MO.

(2001 estimates, except as noted; growth rates are est. 2001 vs. est. 1999, except as noted)

Population: 1.79 million, +2.29%

Population growth, eat. 1999 vs. 1990: +10.76%

2006 population forecast: 1.90 million

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Disposable income: $42.57 billion, +8.51%

Household income: $61,892, +5.90%

Per-capita income: $23,806, +6.33%

Eating-and-drinking place sales (1999): $2.07 billion

No. of foodservice & drinking places (1997): 3,029

Foodservice & drinking place payroll (1997): $520.6 million

No. of foodservice & drinking place employees (1997): 56,022

No. of residents per foodservice & drinking place (1997): 568

Hourly minimum wage: $5.15

Employers' tip-credit allowance: 93 cents

State and local sales tax: 6.6%

Annual economic impact of travel and tourism: $3.1 billion

Local unemployment rate: 2.8%

Sources: U.S. Dept. of Commerce; U.S. Census Bureau; Editor & Publisher Market Guide; NRN Research.

Las Vegas

Amy Spector

Operators hit the jackpot with restaurant developments on the Vegas Strip, surrounding suburbs

With the Las Vegas metropolitan area claiming three of the top 10 fastest-growing cities in the 2000 Census, no end appears to be in sight for the development boom that began there in the late 20th century.

Likewise, the culinary bonfire continues to burn brightly in Las Vegas. Some restaurant industry watchers date that phenomenon back to 1992, when culinary icon Wolfgang Puck opened an outpost of his Los Angeles Spago in The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace and, as many observers will testify, rewrote the gambling mecca's recipe for entertainment.

Puck and such other culinary figures as Mark Miller and Emeril Lagasse paved the way to the Las Vegas Strip for such celebrated chefs as Julian Serrano, Joachim Splichal, Todd English and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Between 1998 and 2000 five massive casino resorts opened their doors to more than 15,000 new hotel rooms and 90 foodservice outlets. And with those additions came about 100,000 more residents each year, according to Van Heffner, president and chief executive of the Nevada Restaurant Association.

"When we opened, I thought we were expensive. Now it seems like we're moderately priced," says Tom Kaplan, managing partner for the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Restaurant division, whose high-grossing Spago Las Vegas is one of five Puck-conceived establishments now operating in Las Vegas.

According to Kevin Baggen, senior research analyst at the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, eating-and-drinking place sales last year contributed $3.9 billion to Clark County's $20.5 billion in taxable sales. That foodservice number compares with $3.3 billion in 1998, he says.

Food & Beverage Industry

Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2001

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